Whether or not this is ok can be determined through an exageration.
GAMEZMAKERX produces a Game, 'A Funny Story'. It is all about a kid going to school, flirting with his girlfriend, playing a sports minigame and taking a few quizes/test.
They submit 'A Funny Story' to ESRB and recieve a Rating of 'E' and get a nice large distribution. Yay!
One week after release, a hack is discovered. It turns out that GAMEZMAKERX had originally planned the game to be dirty. 'XXX-Fuzzy' was all about a punk getting laid, cheating on exams and then shooting up his school after expulsion. All of the content was there and to unlock it required a simple mod.
The likely scenarios are:
1) They knew the content was there and they totally leaked to mod.
2) They thought it was all removed. But certain programmers kept in in there to be subversive.
In either case GAMEZMAKERX is boned. There can be no question that they have thoroughly violated the public trust. Claiming that a young player could not accidentally uncover the mod is not good enough. In all likely the kid will be exposed to the content just to be 'in' with his friends. That's life.
That's the extreme. But notheless, it implies that Rockstar is responsible for the content on the disc they produce.
In reality, we have a standout gaming company Rockstar that makes no joke about the kind of games they are about. GTA all the way, baby. '4 life, homie!'
This mod simply cannot harm the reputation this game has already earned. This mod could impact the venue of future sales but I assumed Rockstar was already working on GTA:5. At least, they better be:)
So what is the actual punishment? How heavily do you fine a company for so slight and negligible a shift. Not much, imo. A slap on the wrist to remind game producers that they need to be honest with themselves, the government and their customers.
I am not going to dig up my GTA:SA to see this mod so it ticks me off that I missed out on it. Stupid Rockstar, I love you guys.
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Whether or not this is ok can be determined through an exageration. GAMEZMAKERX produces a Game, 'A Funny Story'. It is all about a kid going to school, flirting with his girlfriend, playing a sports minigame and taking a few quizes/test. They submit 'A Funny Story' to ESRB and recieve a Rating of 'E' and get a nice large distribution. Yay! One week after release, a hack is discovered. It turns out that GAMEZMAKERX had originally planned the game to be dirty. 'XXX-Fuzzy' was all about a punk getting laid, cheating on exams and then shooting up his school after expulsion. All of the content was there and to unlock it required a simple mod. The likely scenarios are: 1) They knew the content was there and they totally leaked to mod. 2) They thought it was all removed. But certain programmers kept in in there to be subversive. In either case GAMEZMAKERX is boned. There can be no question that they have thoroughly violated the public trust. Claiming that a young player could not accidentally uncover the mod is not good enough. In all likely the kid will be exposed to the content just to be 'in' with his friends. That's life. That's the extreme. But notheless, it implies that Rockstar is responsible for the content on the disc they produce. In reality, we have a standout gaming company Rockstar that makes no joke about the kind of games they are about. GTA all the way, baby. '4 life, homie!' This mod simply cannot harm the reputation this game has already earned. This mod could impact the venue of future sales but I assumed Rockstar was already working on GTA:5. At least, they better be :)
So what is the actual punishment? How heavily do you fine a company for so slight and negligible a shift. Not much, imo. A slap on the wrist to remind game producers that they need to be honest with themselves, the government and their customers.
I am not going to dig up my GTA:SA to see this mod so it ticks me off that I missed out on it. Stupid Rockstar, I love you guys.
I'm sure sometimes they just cut off your hands.